The part-time Associate degree programme Experiential Expertise in Health and Welfare comprises a first-year programme (60 ECTS credits) and a main phase (60 ECTS credits). A strong link between the degree programme and the student’s work environment forms an essential and compulsory part of the programme.
The student combines working as a professional in a professional context with active learning linked to the content of the programme. The practice setting provides regular supervision by a degree-qualified social worker with knowledge of, and an affinity for, the idea of recovery.
The graduate of the part-time Associate degree programme Experiential Expertise in Health and Welfare can fulfil a position as an expert by experience in the field of mental health or addiction.

The Associate degree programme equips the student with the competences required of a professional in the field of health and welfare. These are: 

1. The expert by experience is present during the day to day life of the client; with involvement and empathy.
2. The expert by experience deploys himself, or herself, as a tool in recovery counselling, based on his/her own processed experiential knowledge, providing hope and acting as a role model for recognition and acknowledgment.
3. The expert by experience is able to maintain a connection with his/her own experiential world in which knowledge is anchored and use this experiential knowledge, for example, in disclosures, support, advocacy, training, consultation and research.
4. The expert by experience is orientated widely, sees the other as a whole person, instead of a "sickness" and stays alert to stigma.
5. The expert by experience can use his/her own story or parts of the collective experiential knowledge to achieve and initiate recovery and/or empowerment.
6. The expert by experience analyses and reflects on living with illness and recovery by using his/her own experiences and those of other experts. 
7. The expert by experience is capable, based on the experiential knowledge, of giving feedback on quality aspects of mental health care and the degree of recovery support in an institution.
8. The expert by experience can help others to reflect on personal experiences, make personal experiences productive and develops his/her own personal experiences into expertise.